Residents living in the south end of town soon will be receiving
better fire protection thanks to the county’s fire task force
altering the city fire department’s boundaries so it responds to
calls in both city and county areas, according to the fire
chief.
Hollister – Residents living in the south end of town soon will be receiving better fire protection thanks to the county’s fire task force altering the city fire department’s boundaries so it responds to calls in both city and county areas, according to the fire chief.
Hollister Fire Chief Bill Garringer said since opening the city’s new fire station on Union Road in February, it just makes sense for city firefighters to respond to calls in south San Benito County because the station is closer to that area than the county station on Fairview Road.
“They’ll still get an engine from Fairview, but now they’ll also get an engine from us with three guys on it. And we’ll get there quicker,” Garringer said. “Fire protection is going to improve with this new agreement.”
The task force will present the agreement to City Council members Monday, which Garringer is confident will get approved because it doesn’t require additional funds to upgrade services. Once the city approves it, the Board of Supervisors will also have to approve it. Garringer estimates residents in Ridgemark, Union Road, Cienega Road all the way to the Hidden Valley area will have improved fire protection by mid-May.
Former Hollister Mayor Tony Bruscia formed the fire task force about nine months ago to look at ways to improve fire service and save money at the same time. Besides re-drawing the city fire department’s boundaries, the task force has also come up with several ideas to improve protection county-wide, Bruscia said.
They have brainstormed ways to dedicate a dispatch worker at the county communications center to fire calls. Once it is determined what the emergency call pertains to, an operator versed in fire protocol would handle the communication – cutting down on inefficiencies, Bruscia said.
The task force has also talked about ways to institute taxes to help fund both fire and police protection – such as a parcel tax or sales tax, he said.
But before any of that could take place, the task force first has to educate the community to the county’s inadequate fire protection, he said. Although Hollister now has two fire stations, the county only has one, which it doesn’t even own but contracts out with the California Department of Forestry.
“A lot of people move to (the county) from San Jose and fire protection here isn’t even close, but they don’t realize that,” Bruscia said. “So the first piece is educating people. Are you willing to pay for fire service? Firefighters will sit around and tell you we need, we need, we need. But the city and county don’t have extra dollars.”
In relation to a special tax, the task force is waiting on the Board of Supervisors to research a public safety service area the Board passed almost 20 years ago but never enacted, Garringer said. If enacted, residents living in much of the unincorporated area of the county would pay extra property taxes to help fund public safety, he said.
Supervisor Pat Loe, who is also a task force member, said county staff are researching the public safety district now as to what steps the county would have to take to get the district approved. Although the Board passed it years ago, because of a state proposition it would now have to go to a vote of the people to enact it, Loe said. The staff report will be presented to supervisors in mid-May and will include estimates on how much money it would generate and a host of other unanswered questions, she said.
“It would go to the people to let them decide what level of service they’d like,” she said. “Because ultimately the taxpayer would have to pay for it.”
